There remains the question of a reform of local government.  For many years past, every English Ministry has undertaken to frame a measure creating a new system of popular rural self-government in England.  It is the first large task of domestic legislation which we ask from Parliament.  When such a scheme is proposed, can Ireland be left out of it?  Should she be left out, the argument that she is being treated unequally and unfairly, as compared with England, would gain immense force; because the present local government of Ireland is admittedly less popular, less efficient, altogether less defensible, than even that of England which we are going to reform.  If, therefore, the theory that the Imperial Parliament is both anxious and able to do its duty by Ireland is to be maintained, Ireland, too, must have her scheme of local government.  And a scheme of local government is a large project, the discussion of which must pass into a discussion of the government of the island as a whole.

Since, then, we may conclude that whatever Ministry is in power will be bound to take up the state of Ireland—­since Parliament and the nation will be occupied with the subject during the coming sessions fully as much as they have been during those that have recently passed—­the next inquiry is, What will the tendency of opinion and legislation be?  Will the reasons and forces described above bring us to Home Rule? and if so, when, how, and why?

There are grounds for answering these questions in the negative.  A majority of the House of Commons, including the present Ministry and such influential Liberals as Mr. Bright, Lord Hartington, Mr. Chamberlain, stand pledged to resist it, and seem—­such is the passion which controversy engenders—­more disposed to resist it than they were in 1885.  But this ground is less strong than it may appear.  We have had too many changes of opinion—­ay, and of action too—­upon Irish affairs not to be prepared for further changes.  A Ministry in power learns much which an Opposition fails to learn.  Home Rule is an elastic expression, and some of those who were loudest in denouncing Mr. Gladstone’s Bill will find it easy to explain, should they bring in a Bill of their own for giving self-government to Ireland, that their measure is a different thing, and free from the objections brought against his.  Nor, if such a conversion should come, need it be deemed a dishonest one, for events are potent teachers, and governments now seek rather to follow than to form opinion.  Although a decent interval must be allowed, no one will be astonished if the Tory leaders should move ere long in the direction indicated.  Toryism itself, as has been remarked already, contains nothing opposed to the idea.